The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1887-09-22
PRESIDENT CLEVELAND
The Captured Flags and Pensions.
General George W. Morgan at
Cameron, Ohio.

nC was ElNClAj anu
countermanded, and that is the begin
ming and the ending of the whole affair.
Not one captured flag has been or will be
removed from the National Capital and
all this smoke on the subject amounts to
nothing.
A nation is a great family, in which
union and good will are vital elements
as envy and discord are sources of weak
ness and failure. We OF the North can
afford to be just and generous for after
four years of heroic battle, on either side,
the victory was ours.
During the war there was no malice
between the soldiers of the opposing
armies. The war over, certain northern
and certain southern troops of their own
motion returned captured flags which
had been gallantly won, and as gallantly
defended on well contested fields; and
those acts of generous chivalry were
hailed with loud acclaim from ocean to
ocean, and from Canada to Mexico; and
the world believed that we were again a
united people, bound together by the
.ennobling sentiment of patriot SIN.
Inspired by such feeling, a brave and
meritorious soldier of two wars, who,
when but a boy, enlisted in the first
regiment of Pennsylvania volunteers in
our war with Mexico, and who for gal
lantry was promoted from the ranks to a
lieutenancy in regular regiment, an
who is now Ad,utant General OF tn
army of the United States, sugg, sted to
the Secretary OF War; and he to the
Chief Magistrate OF the Republic, that the
captured flags deposited in the War Office
should be- restored to those from whom
they had been g'oriously won, and by
whom they had been CALAMITY defended.
The President did order those flags to he
returned but, on further consideration,
countermanded the order The order
was a generous and patriotic mistake; a
mistake prompted by desire toprove to
the people of the south that we are all
countrymen again; that we have but one
flag-the star spangled banner or the
Union. But for all that, the order was
calculated TO, and did wound the sus-
capabilities Of many Union soldiers. and
this constituted the mistake. OF ali men,
IL, t1,r, pt,
rule they are the most generous of men !;
and brave and generous men should not
allow party motives to smother the grand
and noble impulse of generosity. Let
the man who never committed a mistake,
step to the front For he is the only
man who has a right to cast stone at
Grover Cleveland. The man does not
live who never committed mistake.
And if the order was a mistake, so have
been the assaults made against the Presi-
dent.
In one OF the many histories of the
battle of Waterloo, a legend is told OF
two aides de Camp-the one of Napoleon
the other of Wellington, who crossed
each others path, each bearing an order
from his chief, on the execution of which
the fate of the battle might depend. The
Frenchman bore down upon the Eng
llshman, who rode steadily on his course !;
but as they neared each other the Eng
lshman raised the stump of his sword
arm, which had been shot away in a
former battle, and instead OF striking his
disabled foe, the Frenchman brought his
sword to a salute and galloped on.
His doing so was mistake OF generosi-
|ty. The Englishman should have been
made prisoner, and the failure to do so
might have lost the battle; but the
mobility of the mistake has always re-
lceived more praise than censure.
The great Napoleon is credited with
Saying: He is the best general who
makes the fewest mistakes, and despite
lall the grandeur of his character, he was
not all exception to his own general
rule.
But let us look at home; and it is un-
necessary to go farther back than the
g eat civil war; the grandest trial by
battle the world has ever seen; a war
(which not only saved the Union, but
placed our country in the forefront OF
nations.
When the national flag was fred upon
lat Sumter, the seeding states were desti-
Itute, Or nearly so, OF military officers of
skill and experience, while the United
States had more than twelve hundred.
As for fighting, the American volun-
rteer north and south, fights as bravely in
his first battle as in his last, as Shiloh
and Donnelson prove; but to make his
courage and intelligence thoroughly
effective, there must be organization,
discipline and drill and these requisites
the south did not possess, until mistake
of President Lincoln furnished the con-
federates with nearly two hundred Off
GERS of skill and experience, whose res
ignations he accepted after Sumter had
been fred upon, and when it was known
they were about 10 take up arms against
the Union.
hold in my hand the official army
register published by order of the Secre-
tary of War, in Sept. 1861, which gives
the names and dates of the designations
of southern officers, which were accepted
by Mr.. Lincoln after our flag had been
fired upon at Sumter. And in the list
we find the names OF Robert E Lee,
Albert Sidney johnson and Joseph T.,
Johnson the equals of Grant. ahd Nc
Clellan and Sheridan. And also the
names OF James E.. Longstreet, one of
the thunderbolts of southern war; OF
Picket, whose name was made immortal
with that OF Hancock, the hero OF Get
tysburg, in that decisive battle OF the
war; and also the names OF Kirby Smith,
Beauregard, Van Dorm, Pemberton,
Stephen D. Lee Magurder, Bee, the
Hills, the Garnetts, and of j. f. b.
Stuart, of the Black Horse cavalry, whose
fame will live as long as history is writ
ten and read and these men were the
equals of our Hooker, who won q. vict-
ory when fighting above the clouds; OF
Buell., the victor Of Shiloh; of McPher-